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Department overview | |
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Formed | September 23, 1918 |
Preceding Department | |
Dissolved | November 18, 1918 |
Superseding Department | |
Jurisdiction | Russian State |
Headquarters | Ufa (to October 9, 1918) Omsk |
Ministers responsible |
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The Provisional All-Russian Government, informally known as the Directory, the Ufa Directory, or the Omsk Directory, [a] was a short-lived government of the Russian State during the Russian Civil War, formed on 23 September 1918 at the State Conference in Ufa as a result of a forced and extremely unstable compromise of various anti-Communist forces in eastern Russia. It was dissolved two months later after the coup, which had brought Admiral Alexander Kolchak to power in Communist-free areas of eastern Russia. It was meant to be a continuation of the original Russian Provisional Government that was overthrown during the October Revolution in 1917.
The Government was formed from the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, mainly Socialist Revolutionaries and Kadets based in Samara, and from the Provisional Siberian Government of regional politicians and rightist officers and based in Omsk. The two regimes had previously failed to work effectively together, with rivalry leading to a customs war and to numerous border disputes. In November 1918 a military coup by right-wing Kadets, officers, and Cossacks, with some support from the Allies, overthrew the Provisional All-Russian Government and appointed Admiral Kolchak as the Supreme Leader of Russia. Kolchak, who had been the Minister of War in the government for two weeks, was supported by the coup faction to create a new government that would have no SR influence. [1]
Despite its problems, the Provisional All-Russian Government was recognized by all White Russian factions east of the Urals and also established a unified foreign policy. It had the support of Russia's former diplomatic missions abroad. But the government's Directory did not have a large administrative state, and continued to rely on the institutions of the former Provisional Siberian Government in Omsk, which was also where the Allied powers set up their diplomatic and military offices. [2]
A State Conference took place at Ufa between 8 and 23 September 1918, which resulted in the establishment of this alternative to the Russian Republic and then when that was overthrown by the Bolshevik government. It encompassed 170 delegates, including some from other regions.
According to William Henry Chamberlin, "Partly under pressure from the Czechs, who were becoming impatient at the inability of the anti-Bolshevik Russians, whom they had been aiding, to help themselves, a state conference, attended by representatives of the Omsk and Samara Governments and other numerous political organizations and regional authorities, opened in Ufa on September 8 for the purpose of working out some scheme of political and military unity. The radicals at Ufa wished to make the new government, which was to be created, responsible before the original Constituent Assembly; the conservatives wanted to make it as authoritarian and as free from external control as possible..." A compromise resulted with the formation of a five man Directory, but the Constituent Assembly would resume activity if 250 member gathered by 1 January 1919, or 170 by 1 February. [3]
The five person Directory had their deputies, personal backup members of the Directory, some of whom were located at a considerable distance from Ufa.
Elected members | Nikolai Avksentiev | Nikolai Astrov (in the South) | Vasily Boldyrev | Pyotr Vologodsky (in the Far East) | Nikolai Tchaikovsky (in Arkhangelsk) |
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Elected deputies | Andrei Argunov | Vladimir Vinogradov | Mikhail Alekseyev (in the South) | Vasily Sapozhnikov | Vladimir Zenzinov |
Real composition | Nikolai Avksentiev | Vladimir Vinogradov | Vasily Boldyrev | Pyotr Vologodsky | Vladimir Zenzinov |
The Council of Ministers carried out the day-to-day administration of the government. A majority of the Council of Ministers (10 out of 14) had served formerly as members of the Provisional Siberian Government.
The Act on the Formation of the All-Russian Supreme Power [4] established that the PA-RG “is the only bearer of supreme power throughout the entire Russia until the convocation of the Constituent Assembly”. The Act provided "the transfer of all the functions temporarily assigned by the regional governments" to the PA-RG. Thus, the sovereignty of regional formations was canceled and replaced by "broad autonomy of regions", which limits completely depended on the "wisdom of the Provisional All-Russian Government".
The foundations of the national state structure of Russia should have proceeded from federal principles: “the organization of liberated Russia on the basis of recognizing of broad autonomy for its individual areas, due to geographic, economic and ethnic characteristics; assuming the final establishment of the federal government by the sovereign Constituent Assembly ..., recognition of right for cultural and national self-determination for the minorities that do not occupy a separate territory".
The following were named as urgent tasks to restore the state unity and independence of Russia:
Council of Ministers | |
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Cabinet of Russia | |
Date formed | 4 November 1918 |
Date dissolved | 18 November 1918 |
People and organisations | |
Chairman | Pyotr Vologodsky |
Deputy Chairman | Vladimir Vinogradov |
No. of ministers | 14 |
Member party | Socialist Revolutionary, Constitutional Democratic |
History | |
Predecessor | Komuch and Siberian government |
Successor | Council of Ministers of the Russian State |
On October 9, the Directory left Ufa and moved to Omsk due to the threat of the capture of Ufa by the advancing Soviet troops. On October 13, the former commander of the Black Sea Fleet Vice Admiral Alexander Kolchak arrived in Omsk, who later became a member of the Council of Ministers of the PA-RG. On November 4, the Government appealed to the regions with a demand to immediately dissolve "all Regional Governments and Representative Institutions without exception" and transfer all powers to the All-Russian Government (Council of Ministers). Such a centralization of state was justified by the need to "recreate the homeland's combat power, which is so necessary in the time of the struggle for the revival of Great and United Russia", and "to create the necessary conditions to supply the army and organize the rear". On the same day, on the basis of the Provisional Siberian Government, the executive body of the Directory was formed — the All-Russian Council of Ministers, headed by Pyotr Vologodsky. Now it was possible to achieve the abolition of all regional, national and Cossack governments in the East of Russia and thereby formally consolidate the forces of anti-Bolshevik resistance.
The "All-Russian" Council of Ministers, formed on 4 November 1918, included:
The Directory coup occurred on the night of 17 November 1918, when Krasilnikov's detachment burst onto a meeting of Avksentiev, Zenzinov, Rakov, Gendelman, three delegates from the Archangel Government, and Assistant Minister of the Interior Rogovsky. All of them were members of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Krasilnikov arrested Avksentiev and Zenzinov. On 18 November, Premier Vologodosky called a meeting of the Cabinet, and soon there was general agreement the only solution to the political crisis was a personal dictatorship. Kolchak assumed the title of Supreme Ruler, "Commander-in-chief of all the land and naval forces of Russia." Avksentiev, Zenzinov, and Argunov were deported to Paris. Boldyrev also left the country. [3] : 177–183
The Council of Ministers came to the conclusion about the need for "the complete concentration of military and civil power in the hands of one person with an authoritative name in the military and public circles." It was decided in principle “to transfer temporarily the exercise of supreme power to one person, based on the assistance of the Council of Ministers, assigning to such a person the name of the Supreme Ruler", after which "the Regulations on the temporary structure of state power in Russia" (the so-called Constitution of November 18) was developed and adopted, which established the procedure for the relationship of the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Ruler.
The next morning, The Council of Ministers met after the arrest of the Social Revolutionaries, the ministers decided on the need to assume full supreme power and then transfer it to an elected person who would lead on the principles of unity of command. The election was held on a secret ballot using closed notes and Admiral Alexander Kolchak was chosen.
Kolchak issued the following appeal to the population: [3] : 178
"The Provisional All-Russian Government has fallen. The Council of Ministers, having all the power in its hands, has invested me, Admiral Alexander Kolchak, with this power. I have accepted this responsibility in the exceptionally difficult circumstances of civil war and complete disorganisation of the country, and I now make it known that I shall follow neither the reactionary path nor the deadly path of party strife. My chief aims are the organisation of a fighting force, the overthrow of Bolshevism, and the establishment of law and order, so that the Russian people may be able to choose a form of government in accordance with its desire and to realise the high ideas of liberty and freedom. I call upon you, citizens, to unite and to sacrifice your all, if necessary, in the struggle with Bolshevism."
Included among Kolchak's ministers was former prominent Tsarist minister Sergey Sazonov, who would represent the government at the Paris Peace Conference. [5]
A new Russian government was formed, in which nearly all of the member of the Directory's Council of Ministers retained their offices. It operated until January 4, 1920.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)The Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly was an anti-Bolshevik government that operated in Samara, Russia, during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It formed on June 8, 1918, after the Czechoslovak Legion had occupied the city.
The White Army or White Guard, also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. They fought against the Red Army of Soviet Russia.
The Russian Civil War spread to the east in May 1918, with a series of revolts along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway, on the part of the Czechoslovak Legion and officers of the Russian Army. Provisional anti-Bolshevik local governments were formed in many parts of Siberia and the Russian Far East during that summer in the wake of the Czechoslovak Legion uprising, including in Samara, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok.
Viktor Nikolayevich Pepelyayev was a Russian politician, a supporter of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the State of Russia.
Vladimir Mikhailovich Zenzinov was a member of Russia's Socialist-Revolutionary Party, a participant of the First (1905), Second, and Third Russian Revolutions, and an author of a number of books.
Nikolai Dimitrovich Avksentyev was a leading member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR). He was one of the 'Heidelberg SRs', like Vladimir Zenzinov. These SRs were influenced by neo-Kantian philosophy and Marxism. As Chairman of the Provisional All-Russian Government, he headed the Russian state from September 23 to November 18, 1918. He was overthrown and arrested by the Minister of War, Alexander Kolchak, who proclaimed himself the Supreme Ruler of Russia.
The Siberian Army was an anti-Bolshevik army during the Russian Civil War, which fought from June 1918 – July 1919 in Siberia – Ural Region.
The Provisional Siberian Government was a short-lived government in Siberia created by political Whites in 1918.
The All Russian Constituent Assembly was a constituent assembly convened in Russia after the February Revolution of 1917. It met for 13 hours, from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m., 18–19 January [O.S. 5–6 January] 1918, whereupon it was dissolved by the Bolshevik-led All-Russian Central Executive Committee, proclaiming the Third All-Russian Congress of Soviets the new governing body of Russia.
The Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries, also known as the Socialist Revolutionary Party, was a major political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Soviet Russia.
Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak was a Russian military leader and polar explorer who held the title of Supreme Ruler of Russia from 1918 to 1920 during the Russian Civil War, though his actual control over Russian territory was limited. Previously, he served in the Imperial Russian Navy and fought in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I.
Events from the year 1918 in Russia
Leonid Aleksandrovich Ustrugov was a Russian railway engineer who served as the Minister of Railways in the White government of Admiral Alexander Kolchak during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1920. He later became a victim of Stalin's Great Purge.
The Russian State was a White Army anti-Bolshevik state proclaimed by the Act of the Ufa State Conference of September 23, 1918, “On the formation of the all-Russian supreme power” in the name of “restoring state unity and independence of Russia” affected by the revolutionary events of 1917, the October Revolution and the signing of the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany.
The Supreme Ruler of Russia, also referred to as the Supreme Leader of Russia, was the head of state and supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian State, an anti-Bolshevik government established by the White Movement during the Russian Civil War. For nearly two years from November 1918 until April 1920, the armies of the White Movement were nominally united under the administration of the Russian State, during which the Russian State claimed to be the sole legal government of Russia. The office's sole holder for most of its existence, and the only one to officially adopt the titles and functions of the Supreme Ruler, was Admiral Alexander Kolchak, who was elected to the position by the All-Russian Council of Ministers following the November 18 coup which overthrew the Directory.
The State Conference in Ufa which took place on September 8–23, 1918, in the city of Ufa in southern Russia was the most representative forum of anti-Bolshevik governments, political parties, Cossack troops, and local governments of eastern Russia.
The Bashkir Government was the supreme executive authority of Bashkiria.
Sergei Nikolaevich Rozanov was a lieutenant general, a leader of the White movement.
The Russian Government was the highest executive body in White-controlled parts of Russia during the Russian Civil War, formed as a result of the coup of 18 November 1918 in Omsk headed by Alexander Kolchak.
The Kolchak Coup or Omsk Coup refers to the events of 18 November 1918, when members associated with the left wing of the Directory were arrested by members of the White Army in Omsk and the subsequent decision of the All-Russian Council of Ministers to transfer sole supreme power to Alexander Kolchak, the Minister of Military and Naval Affairs.